Laser Printer Hardware Issues
A laser printer has several hardware components that could cause issues with print quality. One piece of hardware to check is the toner cartridge and drum assembly. Most laser printers include the drum with the toner cartridge. The drum itself can be defective, which results in toner misapplied to paper, or smudged toner due to too much toner applied to the paper. A defective drum can also cause print lines to appear on paper, often in the same place on each piece of paper. Multiple print lines can appear on paper, evenly spaced between each other.
The toner cartridge itself may have toner “leaking” from it, causing excess toner to get on the paper and other parts of the laser printer. Leaking toner, in general, can make a mess on the paper and inside the printer.
Another piece of hardware in a laser printer that causes issues is the fuser. It is the component that fuses, or adheres, the toner to adhere to the paper. When it is not fusing correctly, toner can become smudged on the paper if non-fused toner sticks to the rollers.
In the case of a bad drum or leaking toner, it is best to replace the entire toner cartridge. If you suspect a bad fuser is at fault, it is best to have the laser printer serviced at a repair shop.
Why Is My Printer Printing Faded Text
Let me start with a puzzle. Which one is the more difficult task to be accomplished writing a report or printing it out with a faulty printer? Obviously, it would be the latter one. Out of dozens of technical faults in a printer, printing faded text is the most annoying one. But you need not worry about that. We are here to tell you several reasons for faded and patchy printing along with solutions.
If you are also the one who wants to fix faded, faint, and patchy printing problems, read the complete article carefully. Without getting late, lets get started.
Contents
Clean Sponges With Distilled Water
- Turn off the printer and open the top. You should be able to see the printhead assembly.
- Look for a small plastic lever, which will pop up when the printer isnt printing, to the left of the assembly. Move it forward and down to release the printhead, then push the assembly to the right. It may only move an inch or less at first, but when you push it to a stop, it will click. This fully releases the assembly so you can push it to the side.
- If there is no lever next to your printhead assembly, print a page with the top up and unplug the printer with the assembly in the center, unlocked.
- You should see sponges, which store ink from the cartridges in the carriage. Using an eyedropper or plastic syringe, saturate the sponges with distilled water or Windex solution.
- Move the assembly back over the sponges as far right as it will go.
- Let the distilled water set for at least fifteen minutes. For the best results, consider letting the printer soak overnight.
- Print six to eight pages dense with text and images until your prints are come out clean and crisp. If you are still not getting good results, consider moving on to the next step in cleaning your printhead.
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How To Fix Smudged Lined Or Distorted Printer Printouts
The cause for a printout having smudged or distorted text and images, and random meaningless characters can be due to multiple possible reasons. To troubleshoot the problem, we recommend reading each of the following sections in order. They’re written systematically to troubleshoot the problem in the most efficient manner possible.
The Background Is Dark Or Dirty
| Cause | What to do |
| You may not be using the correct type of paper for your product. | If the surface of your paper is too rough, printed characters may appear distorted or broken. EPSON special paper, or smooth, high-quality copier paper is recommended for best results. See for information on choosing paper. |
The paper path inside the product may be dusty.
Clean internal product components by printing three pages with only one character per page.
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Faint Light Faded Or Blank Printed Pages
Brother strongly recommends that customers use only genuine Brother drum units and toner cartridges. Each Brother laser printer is designed to work at pre-set temperatures that are matched exactly to each of our individual toner formulations. Each individual component is designed to work with the other to ensure quality and reliability. Using non-Brother supplies may affect the hardware performance, print quality, and machine reliability. The Brother limited warranty doesn’t apply to any problems caused by the use of third-party drum units, toner cartridges, or toner.
If you’re experiencing faint, light, faded, or blank printed pages, follow the steps listed below:
1. Quickly press OK three times to print the Printer Settings report.
– If the print quality is acceptable, the issue has been resolved.
– If the pages are light, faint, faded, or blank, go to step 2.
2. Adjust the print density in the printer driver. Follow the instructions for your operating system:
a. Open the Printers folder. For instructions, .b. Right-click on the Brother printer driver and select Printing Preferences from the list.c. Click on the Advanced tab.d. Click Other Print Options.e. Select Density Adjustment on the left menu.f. Uncheck the Printer Default box.g. Increase the density bar level until it reads +6.h. Click OK, Apply, OK. i. Go to step 3.
Macintosh
3. Send a print job to the machine and review the print quality.
4. Perform a manual drum cleaning:
Areas Are Missing In The Printed Image
| Cause | What to do |
| Your paper may be moist or damp. | This product is sensitive to moisture absorbed by the paper. The higher the moisture content in the paper, the lighter the printout. Do not store paper in a humid or damp environment. |
You may not be using the correct type of paper for your product.
If the surface of your paper is too rough, printed characters may appear distorted or broken. Epson special paper or smooth, high-quality copier paper is recommended for best results. See for information on choosing paper.
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Reasons For Printing Faded Text
Here, we have divided the reasons for faded printing into two main portions. The first one is related to non-technical issues which can be solved easily no matters, even if youre a beginner. On the flip side, technical issues demand technical knowledge and experience to be solved therefore, unless you have experience and technical knowledge of printers, dont mess with faulty printers. Lets check both the portions in great detail
Printer Is Printing Faded Labels
I have 2 printers GK420d those are printing faded labels.
Please advise if these can be repaired and how much it will cost?
Thanks
I dont have a ton of experience with these kinds of printers but I might tray cleaning it first. I know they make special cards that you can use to clean them. Hopefully thats all thats wrong and it will be a quick and easy fix.
Im sure there are other options as well.
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If it is evenly faded, then you may just need to adjust the darkness setting. It also could be a bad printhead. You can try cleaning it. If one area is faded, try cleaning the printhead. Also, the platen roller could be worn or improperly installed. Download the Zebra setup utility from the Zebra website. It will help you in making adjustment to you printer.
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Reset The Cartridge Chip/sensor
Many modern ink and toner cartridges come with a print chip. This chip tells the printer when supplies are running low. Yet, youll notice a good 10 to 20% of supplies leftover in the cartridge if you were to open them up.
Are printer chips a conspiracy to make you buy more supplies? Some think so. OEMs say its to protect your printer and have even put DRM on them to control prints. Either way, low supplies could disrupt the print quality.
There are a few ways to reset ink/toner levels:
- Block the sensor with a piece of tape
- Replace the chip with a third-party chip
Sometimes you can shake the cartridge, too, and get a bit of extra life from it. Or, disabling the print management software can sometimes work, too.
Get in touch with a third-party, aftermarket supplier for chips if you go this route. Their tech support should have the know-how to walk you through this. Plus, you could use the opportunity to order the chip for a few bucks.
The Transfer Voltage Setting Is Incorrect
Adjust the transfer voltage setting of the device.
Press
> > > > > ///
Administrator login is required. The default admin name is “admin” and the default admin password is “999999”.
When is set to , change /.
For other paper types, change /.
If the black fades out, set the black setting on the plus side if the yellow/magenta/cyan fades out, set the colour setting on the plus side.
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Solution Two: Check The Paper
note:
Why Is My Printer Printing Lightly
Is your printer printing lightly? Want to know how to troubleshoot it to print darker? We take a closer look at how to diagnose and troubleshoot a printer printing faded colors.
Sometimes, you stay up late and give your best effort to write a report your last job is to print it out. You send your print jobs with high expectations hoping to call it a day. However, the printed pages came out faded, so light that you can barely see some of the words. After you change a new ink cartridge, you still get the same faint prints. Now what?
It can be irritating and frustrating to receive light printed pages. Instead of getting annoyed by it all the time, we should understand the reasons for getting faded prints and proactively improve the print quality.
6. High or Low Humidity
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Why Are There Streaks Lines Or The Wrong Colors On My Print
If your print-outs are streaky, faded, have lines on them that should not be there, or are otherwise poor in quality, this may be due to a problem with the printer or a low ink or toner supply.
- Fading text or images
-
You may be running out of ink or toner. Check your ink or toner supply and buy a new cartridge if necessary.
- Streaks and lines
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If you have an inkjet printer, the print head may be dirty or partially blocked. Try cleaning the print head. See the printers manual for instructions.
- Wrong colors
-
The printer may have run out of one color of ink or toner. Check your ink or toner supply and buy a new cartridge if necessary.
- Jagged lines, or lines are not straight
-
If lines on your print-out that should be straight turn out jagged, you may need to align the print head. See the printers instruction manual for details on how to do this.
How Do Married Couples Formally Put Their Names On Checks
Joint Checks The names of the account owners are usually preprinted in the name and address field in the upper left-hand corner of the check. It doesnt matter whose name appears first since both parties have equal claim to the account and its assets. Either owner can sign the check and authorize the use of funds.
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Empty Or Defective Toner Cartridges
The most common reason for getting faded prints is having empty or defective toner cartridges. It is unbelievably frequent that people forget to replace their empty toner cartridges and struggle to figure out why their printers print faintly. Another common reason is that people use defective cartridges. Keep in mind that even generic toner cartridges are not perfect all the time, not to mention some low quality remanufactured toner cartridges. Thus, you need to look for cheap but reliable places that sell printer toner.
Reset The Cartridge Positioning
Theres a chance the cartridge became jostled and unseated. In this case, the print head/roller isnt connecting as it should with the page. This could cause degradation to the print, resulting in a faded appearance.
This one is pretty easy:
As expected, print a test page to diagnose the problem. If everything looks good then theres nothing else to worry about!
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Printer Has Ink But Printing Is Faded/non
04-14-201705:56 AM
Printer has ink, but printing is faded/non-apparent – I’m not sure what I can do!
Welcome to HP Forums and Thanks for the post.
I understand that you are facing an issue with the print quality from your printer.
Don’t worry, I will be glad to help.
Have you tried any troubleshooting steps on your own?
Recommend you to refer to this HP Article and try the steps 6, 7, 8 and based on the quality diagnostics page results, proceed further.
It looks like you were interacting with , but he is out for the day & I’ll be glad to help you out,
I’m the Riddle_Decipher & I’ll be more than glad to help,
Please take your time and get back to me with the results,
I’ll be awaiting your response and would be glad to help.
Feel free to post your query for any other assistance as well,
It’s been a pleasure interacting with you and I hope you have a good day ahead.
If you wish to show appreciation for my efforts, mark my post as Accepted Solution.
And click on the Purple Thumbs up icon at the bottom of my comment.
Regards,
The Print Adjustment Is Incorrect
Set the print adjustment of the device.
Press
> > > > > >
Administrator login is required. The default admin name is “admin” and the default admin password is “999999”.
“colour” indicates cyan/magenta/yellow/black.
Select and adjust the colour that fades.
The fading may be improved by selecting a value on the plus side.
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Re: Faint Black Print
We have the exact same problem. We could not locate that part on our printer. We removed two pieces with green handles at the back of the unit but nothing that looked like the picture.
Sorry! It was my fault! That image is from a WC6515.
This is the photo with the CTD sensor on VersaLink C400/405. And to have access on it you must remove the Transfer Belt assy by removing the waste bottle, opening the printer top cover and removing the belt.
A Solution For When Youve Given Up
Just kidding!
This post gave solutions answering, Why is my printer printing faded text. But, if these havent solved the issue then its likely time to call the pros. Let them handle it while you get back to the important stuff.
So, thats one problem solved for your business operations
what about all the others youre bound to run into?
Weve got answers for those, too! Check out our business guides and tutorials here on the site. Youll find tons of great info to help overcome anything that pops up when running a business.
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How To Troubleshoot A Printer That Is Fading On One Side Of The Paper
A printer is an essential part of any business because both your staff and customers need to get the information on the pages it produces. Discovering pages that are faded on one side of the paper can be very frustrating. The problem may be due to a simple issue like printer paper quality or ink/toner cartridge wear, or it could be a more serious problem that requires professional repair. However, you can take several quick and easy troubleshooting steps prior to seeking professional printer repair.
1
Remove the paper currently in the printer’s paper tray.
2
Replace the old paper with fresh printer paper. It is possible that the old paper was moistened on one side or had an irregular surface that was causing the issue, and replacing it with new paper will determine if this is the case.
3
Launch a Web browser or a word-processing program and then navigate to any page that is filled with text and graphics.
4
Print the page using the new paper and then check the newly printed page to see if the problem persists. If the paper is evenly printed, the old paper was the problem. If the page is printed unevenly as it was before, continue to the next step.
5
6
Open the ink/toner cartridge carriage area and then remove cartridge.
7
Place a new cartridge into the ink/toner cartridge carriage.
8
Launch a Web browser or a word-processing program and then navigate to any page that is filled with text and graphics.
9
10
11
References